Upward acting door construction



May 9, 1944. G. H. HUFFERD ET AL 1 2,348,385

I UPWAHD ACTING DOOR CONSTRUCTION Original Filed Sept. 16, 1940 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 i 62-026: l/orrrea. flan-flaw, 9 624/010.

May 9, 1944.

G. 'H. HUFFERD ETAL 'UPWARD ACTING noon consmucwror;

Original Filed Sept. 16, 1940 2 Sheets-Sheet 2- Patented May 9, 1944 UPWARD ACTING DOOR CONSTRUCTION George H. Hufferd, Grosse Pointe, and Matthew P. Graham, Detroit, Mich., assignors to Crawford Door Company, Detroit, Mich., a corporation of Michigan Original application September 16, 1940, Serial No. 356,998. Divided and this application May 29, 1942, Serial No. 444,954

(Cl. Eli-19) 3 Claims.

This invention relates to upward acting door constructions having isolated paths at the side edges of the doors forreceiving runs of the door for counterbalancing the door to insure against accidents in the event of failure of the cables,

This application is a division of our copending application entitled: Resilient cable actuated door, Serial No. 356,998, filed September 16, 1940,

now Patent No. 2,288,711, dated July '7, 1942.

In counterbalancing upward acting doors it has been customary to apply the counterbalancing forces at the side edges of the doors. Heretofore two independent, counterbalancing means have been used, one at each side edge of the door, Such independent counterbalancing means, however, require frequent adjustment to exert equal forces to the opposite side edges of the door. Even when perfectly adjusted, an initial manual lifting force near one side edge of the door to start the opening of the door will disturb the balance forces and cock the door in the doorway, thus causing it to jam in the tracks and, in some instances, permanently throwing the door out of alignment.

These difiiculties can be overcome by utilizing a resiliently expansible and contractible cable having its free ends connected to the opposite side edges of the door and having all intermediate portions thereof movably mounted so that unequal balancing forces will always be applied to both side edges of the door. The cable can take the form of a helically coiled spring which is secured at its ends to the side edges of the door adjacent the bottom of the door. This spring or cable is then trained over sheaves mounted on horizontal shafts at the top of the doorway so that the cable can extend rearwardly from the doorway to the irmer ends of the customary overhead tracks. Sheaves, mounted on vertical shafts, are'provided at the inner ends of the tracks and receive the spring or cable therearound so that it will bridge the space between the horizontal overhead tracks. This provides a floating mounting for all intermediate portions of the spring cable and equal forces must therefore always be applied to the opposite side edges of the door.

If desired the spring cable can be made in two lengths but these lengths are connected together so as to operate as a single unit.

Since the cable must have vertical runs extending from the top of the doorway to the bottom of the door when the door is in closed position, and since the cable is in stressed or stretched condition when the door is closed, it is highly desirable to prevent the cable from flying into the occupied area of the garage or building in the event of failure. Therefore, in accordance with this invention, the door construction is so arranged with vertical tracks and weatherstrips to define vertical isolated paths for these vertical runs of the spring. In the event of spring failure the cable cannot enter the occupied area of the building or garage and cause any damage to cocupants or surrounding objects since it is confined in the isolated paths.

It is, then, an object of this invention to provide door constructions having counterbalancing means with isolated paths or pockets for the counterbalancing means.

A further object of the invention is to arrange vertical weatherstrips and vertical tracks in an upward acting door construction for defining isolated paths adapted to receive runs of the door actuating cable.

A still further object of this invention is to confine door counterbalancing cables in isolated runways.

Other and further objects of the invention will be obvious to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description of the annexed sheets of drawings which, by way of example, disclose a preferred embodiment of the invention.

On the drawings:

Figure 1 is a broken elevational view of a doorway viewed from the inside thereof and having a sectional type upward acting door mounted therein counterbalanced by a resilient cable mechanism according to this invention.

Figure 2 is a vertical cross-sectional view of the doorway taken along the line II--II of Figure 1 and illustrating parts in end elevation.

Figure 3 is a broken vertical cross-sectional view taken along the line III--III of Figure 2.

Figure 4 is a fragmentary plan view illustrating the manner in which the coil spring cables of the counterbalancing mechanism can be tightened.

Figure 5 is an isometric view illustrating the floating mounting for the counterbalancing cable mechanism.

Figure 6 is an enlarged horizontal cross-sectional view taken along the line VI--VI of Figure 1.

Figure 7 is a vertical cross-sectional view taken along the line VII--VII of Figure 6.

Figure 8 is a horizontal cross-sectional View taken along the line VIII-VIII of Figure 2.

Figure 9 is a top plan View along the line IX-IX of Figure 3.

Figure 10 is an end elevational view along the line XX of Figure 9.

As shown on the drawings:

In Figures 1 and 2 the reference numeral ll! designates generally a door adapted to close a doorway ll defined by side door jambs l2, 2, lintel l3 and a floor M. A ceiling l5 extends inwardly from the lintel l3.

Vertical tracks [6 are mounted by means of angle strips I! to the inner faces of the door jambs l2 in spaced relation from the door opening ll. Horizontal tracks l8 extend inwardly from the door opening I I just below the ceiling l5 and are suspended at their inner ends by means of brackets such as l9. Curved intermediate track portions 20 connect the horizontal and vertical tra'cksand maybe integral with these tracks.

' Brackets 2| secured on the inner face of the lintel l3 above the top of the door opening ll support the curved trackiportions 20.

As best shown in Figures 6 and 8, weatherstrips 22 are secured to the opposed doorway defining faces of'the jambs l2 and to the lintel 13. These weatherstrips extend inwardly from the jarnbs and lintel to provide, with their inner edges 22a, an abutment for the door Ill.

As best shown in Figure 1, the door i9 is built up from a bottom panel or section [0a, an intermediate panel or'section lilb, and a top panel or section I00. The sections are articulately connected by means of hinges 23 secured to the inner faces of the adjoining panels at the side edges of the door and supporting laterally projecting rollers 24 which ride in the tracks.

Angle brackets 25 are secured to the inner face of the door section 19a at the bottom corners thereof and, as shown in Figures 6 and 7, have legs 25 extending over the side edges of the door and.

rotatably supporting additional rollers 21 riding in the tracks. In accordance with this invention the side legs 26 have extensions 26a projecting forwardly and outwardly into the spaces S defined by the inner faces of the door jambs l2, the weatherstrips 22, angle strips ll and the tracks It, for a purpose to be hereinafter described.

.Thetop side edges of the door panel its carry brackets 28 secured to the inner face of the panel and also supporting laterally projecting rollers 2'5 which ride in the tracks.

Thedoor I0 is thus composed of articulately connected panels or sections which are guided on rollers carried by Vertical and horizontal tracks to slidably mount the door for movement from a closed vertical position to an open horizontal overhead position. q

In accordance with this invention the brackets 2| carry horizontal stub shafts 30 on which are rotatably mounted sheaves M. The sheaves 3i are'disp'osed directly over the spaces S described above and shown in Figures 6 and 8.

The inner ends of the horizontal tracks 18 have fiat horizontal plates 32 secured to the tops thereof and extending toward each other beyond the top flanges lBa of the tracks as best shown in Figures 3 and 9. These plates 32 carry vertical stub shafts 33 on which are rotatably mounted sheaves 34. The sheaves have grooved peripheries extending over the longitudinal center of the track flanges l8a.

A V-shaped trough member 35, which can be an ordinary angle iron strip, is bifurcated at the ends thereof by cutting off portions of its bottom at the ends of the strip to provide open ended recesses 36. The furcations are then flattened out to provide fingers 37 as best shown in Figures 9 and 10. The flattened fingers are mounted on the plates 32 with one finger of each pair under a sheave 34. The member 35 bridges the horizontal tracks t8 at the inner ends thereof.

An elongated helical coil spring 38 is secured at one end 38a thereof to the finger portion 26a of the bracket 25 at the right side edge of the door and extends from this finger through the space S over the right-hand sheave 3i and thence rearwardly over the right-hand horizontal track It around the right-hand sheave 34 toward the other sheave 34 above the trough member 35. A second elongated helical coil spring 39 has an end 39a thereof secured to the finger 2a of the left-- hand bracket 25 and extends upwardly through the left-hand space S around the sheave 3i,

thence rearwardly above the left-hand track l8 and around the sheave 34 above the trough member 35 toward the other coil spring 38. The other ends 381) and 3% of the coil springs are connected by means of a wire hook 40. V

The wire 4! is also disposed above the trough 35 and integrally joins the two springs 38 and 39 into a unit. Obviously, of course, a single coil spring could be used in'place of the two spring lengths. However, as illustrated in Figure 4, the use of two springs 38 and 39, connected by means of a hook 40, makes possible a tightening of the spring tension by merely hooking the wire into coils of the spring spaced from the ends 38b and 3%- thereof.

The coil spring unit is, of course, resiliently contractible and expansible and i anchored only to spaced portions of the bottom panel l to at the side edges of the panel. All other portions of the spring unit are floatably carried around readily rotatable sheaves.

The spring unit must, therefore, exert equal forces on the opposite side edges of the door, and these forces are automatically balanced even when the door is given a manual lifting thrust from one side edge thereof.

The spring unit acts both as a counterbalance and as a cable threaded over the horizontal tracks and adjacent the vertical tracks.

The trough member 35 acts as a support for the rear run of the spring unit and prevents a down ward looping of the spring when the door is in open position.

The sheaves 3| are mounted directly above the fingers 26a of the bottom bracket 25 so that the vertical runs of the spring unit will effect a straight upward'pull. Likewise, the sheaves 34 are aligned with the sheaves 3! to guide the rearward run of the spring unit directly over the horizontal tracks 18. Therefore, no binding action will occur between the spring cable and the sheaves.

V The vertical runs of the spring cable will pull the door 10 upwardly in the vertical tracks it while the superimposed door panels will articulate relative to each other and be transferred to the horizontal tracks IS.

The coil springs used, in this invention, both as spring actuators and cables, need not be very heavy to fully counterbalance even a quite heavy door, because the springs are very long and added length is obtained by threading the springs from the front to the rear ends of the horizontal tracks.

Coil springs from one-half to one inch in diameter are quite ample to provide any necessary counterbalancing force. Since the springs are quite long, each coil is only very slightly flexed and the springs will have exceptionally long Wearing life.

The spaces S provided for the vertical runs of the springs will efficiently prevent accidental physical contact with the springs by persons operating the door. Even the overhead runs of the springs are provided with supports. Thus even though a spring cable should give way when in stretched condition, it cannot possibly cause injury to any person in the garage or building.

It will, of course, be understood that various details of construction may be varied through a wide range without departing from the principles of this'invention and it is, therefore, not the purpose to limit the patent granted hereon otherwise than necessitated by the scope of the appended claims,

We claim as our invention:

1. An upward acting door construction comprising a doorway having side jambs and a lintel, a door for closing said doorway, vertical angle strips secured on the inner faces of the side jambs and having inwardly extending leg portions in spaced relation from the sides of the doorway, weatherstrips secured on the side jambs extending inwardly from the side jambs to abut the outer face of the door, vertical tracks on said in wardly extending leg portions of the angle strips having flanges forwardly of the outer face of the door terminating in spaced relation from the weatherstrips, said side jambs, said legs of the angle strips, said flanges ofthe tracks, and said the front face of the door, rotatable sheaves mounted on the lintel and extending over the top of the paths, and counterbalancing means trained over said sheaves and anchored on the terminal ends of said fingers forwardly of the front face of the door to operate in said vertical paths.

2. An upward acting door construction comprising a doorway having side door jambs, vertical tracks mounted on the inner faces of the door jambs in spaced relation from the doorway and from the door jambs, weatherstrips carried by the door jambs extending inwardly from the door jambs into abutting relation with the outer face of the door at the side edges of the door, said inner faces of the door jambs, weatherstrips, and

tracks defining fixed isolated vertical paths in front of the side edges of the door and completely closed around the peripheries thereof except for narrow gaps between the tracks and the door, brackets carried by the door having fingers projecting forwardly of the outer face'of the door into said paths, and a spring cable unit anchored to said fingers and trained through said paths for counterbalancing said door.

3. A door construction comprising door jambs defining a doorway, weatherstrips secured to said doorway and extending inwardly therefrom to define door abutment surfaces with their inner faces, vertical tracks carried by said door jambs in spaced relation inwardly therefrom and in spaced relation laterally from the weatherstrips, an upward acting door operatively mounted in said tracks having an outer face adapted to engage the inner face of the weatherstrips when the door is in doorway closing position, said weatherstrips, door jambs, and tracks defining fixed isolated paths forwardly of the front face of-the door, door counterbalancing means trained through said paths, and brackets on the lower' ends of the door extending into said paths for connection with said counterbalancing means.

GEORGE H. HUFFERD. MATTHEW P. GRAHAM. 

